Pustynia/ Wüste exhibition at Austrian Cultural Forum Warsaw as an outcome of Saharan Residency
In March 2019 I went to a residency Cafe Tissardmine in Western Sahara in Morocco. The residency is run by an artist and cultural manager Karen Hadfield and it’s a real treasure.
Cafe Tissardmine
My participation in the residency was supported by European Cultural Foundation Step Travel grant and you can read about it more on their website:
https://ecflabs.org/julia.sokolnicka.1547993193
It is at this residency where I met Andrea Peregrini, an Austrian sound artist based in Zwettle area in Austria, where most beautiful plateau with old huge stones is. Andrea is a sound artist connected to Vienna sound art and artistic research scene.
During my stay in Morocco I was primarily interested in reading and researching more about decolonial social choreographies and thinking of social behaviors outside of the cultural heritage coding.
But once arrived it was clear to me, that much more interesting are the non human subject and the experience of being in the desert and endless wandering. The very focus on the human subjects seemed out of place even, as I was questioning what right do I have to film and engage in documentation of situations, which I am not a part of, and how it makes these observations turn into questionable ethnology.
I began to film everything, and trying to be more attentive towards how I felt about the filming itself. I was walking and filming, sometimes having my camera put away and sometimes pointed at random things, but mostly stones. Andrea was aiming to record as well – but her tools were directed at sounds. Together with another artist who was staying at the time in Tissardmine- Carina Cheung, we made trips and explorations, mostly collecting stones in large quantities.
I returned to Amsterdam with a handfull of video material and a bag full of stones and I dived into other projects. Only in 2021 I was approached by Stanisław Welbel who is a Warsaw based curator, who offered me a collaboration. According to the programming of the Austrian Cultural Forum, which he works for, the invitation extends to a collaborating artist who must be based in Austria. I immediately thought of Andrea and her recordings and to my great joy she accepted the invitation.
In the early 2022 I found myself visiting her home in Zwettle and working together on a quadrophonic audiovisual installation composed from our materials.
In April 2022 we already had an exhibition, wonderfully curated by Stanisław Welbel, who encouraged us also to show objects.
https://austria.org.pl/wydarzenia/pustynia-wuste-julia-sokolnicka-andrea-peregrini
Description from the website of the Austrian Cultural Forum
The exhibition is the result of cooperation between Julia Sokolnicka (PL) and Andrea Peregrini (AT), who met in 2019 during the Café Tissardmine artist residency in Morocco, near Erfoud (Western Sahara). The residence is located in traditional buildings near an Amazyg (Berber) village and is run by Australian-English cultural producer Karen Hadfield. Car rallies, film crews and ordinary tourists often take place in the area. The local community is also engaged in traditional crafts and date cultivation.
The artists use different media, Andrea deals with sound and Julia deals with film. During the residency, they not only recorded field recordings and films, but above all, they reflected on the possibilities and limitations that lay ahead of them as artists and visitors who appeared in this place for a short time. In this way, their work became a reflection on the position and role of the tourist, ways of perception and issues related to the control provided by the power to look through the camera lens or listen and record with a microphone in the context of interpersonal and interspecies relations. In the background of their joint work there are questions about the ethical side of creating art as part of artistic residency programs, especially in the postcolonial context.
Exhibition:
Desert / Wüste. Julia Sokolnicka, Andrea Peregrini
Artists/Künstlerinnen: Julia Sokolnicka (PL), Andrea Peregrini (AT)
Curator: Stanisław Welbel
Vernissage and meeting with artists 22/04/2022 (Friday) 18:00
Introduction and moderation of the meeting – Dr. Dorota Łagodzka
Dr. Dorota Łagodzka – art historian, cultural expert, assistant professor at the Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw, co-author and coordinator of the anthropozoology course. Author of numerous publications in the field of cultural animal studies and contemporary art.
Concert accompanying the exhibition – April 25, 2022 (Mon) 7:00 p.m
Andrea Peregrini – Electronics https://soundcloud.com/unstable_range/erosion
Piotr Dąbrowski – Percussion instruments https://soundcloud.com/piotr-d-browski-2
Piotr Dąbrowski – sound practitioner, percussionist, musician following his own path, drawing learning and inspiration from everywhere. For him, musical practice is a spiritual – life practice – the Way of Sound.
In Polish:
https://austria.org.pl/wydarzenia/pustynia-wuste-julia-sokolnicka-andrea-peregrini
Wystawa jest rezultatem współpracy pomiędzy Julią Sokolnicką (PL) a Andreą Peregrini (AT), które spotkały się w 2019 roku podczas rezydencji artystycznej Café Tissardmine w Maroku, w pobliżu Erfoud (Sahara Zachodnia). Rezydencja mieści się w tradycyjnych zabudowaniach w pobliżu wioski Amazygów (Berberów), prowadzi ją australijsko-angielska producentka kulturalna Karen Hadfield. W okolicy często odbywają się samochodowe rajdy, pojawiają się ekipy filmowe i zwykli turyści. Lokalna społeczność zajmuje się również tradycyjnym rzemiosłem i uprawą daktyli.
Artystki posługują się różnymi mediami, Andrea zajmuje się dźwiękiem a Julia filmem. Podczas rezydencji nie tylko rejestrowały nagrania terenowe i filmowały, ale przede wszystkim zastanawiały się nad możliwościami i ograniczeniami, jakie przed nimi stały, jako artystkami oraz przybyszkami, pojawiającymi się przecież w tym miejscu przez krótki czas. W ten sposób ich praca stała się refleksją na temat pozycji i roli turysty, sposobów percepcji oraz kwestii związanych z kontrolą jaką daje władza spojrzenia przez obiektyw kamery albo słuchania i rejestrowania mikrofonem w kontekście relacji międzyludzkich i międzygatunkowych. W tle ich wspólnej pracy stoją pytania dotyczące etycznej strony powstawania sztuki w ramach programów rezydencji artystycznych, szczególnie w kontekście postkolonialnym.
Wystawa:
Pustynia / Wüste. Julia Sokolnicka, Andrea Peregrini
Artystki/Künstlerinnen: Julia Sokolnicka (PL), Andrea Peregrini (AT)
Kurator: Stanisław Welbel
Wernisaż i spotkanie z artystkami 22.04.2022 (pt.) 18:00
Wprowadzenie i moderacja spotkania – dr Dorota Łagodzka
dr Dorota Łagodzka – historyczka sztuki, kulturoznawczyni, adiunkta na Wydziale Artes Liberales UW, współautorka i koordynatorka kierunku antropozoologia. Autorka licznych publikacji z zakresu kulturowych studiów nad zwierzętami i sztuki współczesnej.
Koncert towarzyszący wystawie – 25.04.2022 (pon.) 19:00
Andrea Peregrini – Elektronika https://soundcloud.com/unstable_range/erosion
Piotr Dąbrowski – Instrumenty perkusyjne https://soundcloud.com/piotr-d-browski-2
Piotr Dąbrowski – praktyk dźwiękowy, perkusjonista, muzyk podążający własnądrogą, czerpiący naukę i inspirację zewsząd. Praktyka muzyczna jest dla niego praktyką duchową – życiową – Drogą Dźwięku.
Wystawa do 29.05.2022
Austriackie Forum Kultury
ul. Próżna 7/9
desert_tekst_kuratorski_PL-DE-EN
Tags: AndreaPeregrini, artisticresearch, austrianculturalforum, cafetisserdmine, Julia Sokolnicka, juliasokolnicka, morocco, nonhumanpresence, Pustynia, recording, research, Stanislawwelbel, Thegoodtourist, Tourism, westsahara, wind, Wuste